Coffee at Christmas
by Sunscorched
Summary: Lamb gets a tasty treat at Christmas.


Title: Coffee at Christmas

Author: Scorch

Email: Miss_.uk

Rating: PG

Category: Romance/Fluff

Content: Veronica/Lamb

Summary: Lamb gets a tasty little treat.

Disclaimer: I own nixies.

Distribution: Here, the other place, my place.

Notes: Don't get used to me writing clean fics! Merry Christmas, everyone ;-D

When Don Lamb said he hated hospitals, he meant he hated them with every fibre of his being.

He hated the smell of disinfectant that burned his nose each time he inhaled, hated the white walls that were bright enough to need Raybans, and he hated the ceiling with no cracks to be counted.

Those weren't the worst things. If they were, he'd be able to tone down the hate a bit, but sadly they weren't.

Number three on his Top Three Reasons To Hate Hospitals List were uniforms.

Doctors, porters, lab technicians, nurses...

Oh, he knew how many men joked about getting a pretty little nurse's outfit for their wives and getting a sponge bath by some hot, double D femme fatale. Hell, he'd made the same jokes himself a time or two, but now he knew better.

All had uniforms, especially a nurse's uniform, meant something bad.

If a doctor came along, it was almost certain they'd say something like _your urine test didn't tell us anything so the nurse will be along to take a blood sample_ which in turn led to a nurse stopping by for nice little chat that came complete with the extraction of four vials of blood. The blood would be taken and analysed by a lab tech, the news then got passed down the uniform grapevine until the doctor came back with the words _your blood test shows you have acute appendicitis, Mr. Lamb. You're scheduled for surgery at six am tomorrow_.

So as far as Neptune's ex-sheriff was concerned, a uniform was bad.

Number two on his list was the food.

It was healthy food, yes, but tasteless. He liked vegetables as much as the next guy, but the sprouts were soggy and came without butter, the lettuce leaves were wet and were served with protein filled lentils. The French fries were tinier than his pinky and came without salt or pepper, the portions of meat were almost enough to make him cry.

Not to mention his gifts of candy and chocolate had been confiscated. Especially the box of proper Belgian chocolates from Veronica, so he had nothing.

No salt, pepper, mustard, vinegar, chocolate, meat, fish...

Don Lamb had nothing.

Nothing!

Number one on his list was coffee.

Not only was he not allowed to eat the good stuff, but he wasn't allowed to drink the good stuff. Sure, he missed his beer. His beer that would be waiting for him when he got home from work, all nice and cold and just begging to be drank while his feet were happy on his coffee table.

Coffee table.

Ha.

He couldn't even think of beer without coffee mooching on in there.

He missed coffee so much, he actually dreamt about it last night. There it was, that lovely steaming liquid in a large mug which bore the words Drink Me. Everytime he tried to pick the mug up, it got further and further away and no matter what he did, he couldn't get it.

The hospital gave each patient of a milky drink and he was the only one denied his request. Okay, so asking for a pot of freshly ground Colombian got him laughed at by all the uniformed people.

There was more to coffee than that.

There was the fact that before his head said hi to a baseball bat, he and Veronica were getting somewhere. They weren't friends exactly, but they weren't the enemies they'd once been. The rapes at her college had helped and God, wasn't that ironic?

The same thing that ripped them apart was the same thing that fixed them.

Just went to show what made you bad, made you better.

Don Lamb banished that thought. Another baseball bat to his head would not make him better.

Fact was, Veronica had come to him with the information she'd found and he'd listened, so she'd come to him again and again he'd listened. He'd also acted.

He'd listened to what she had to say and he'd done something about it.

Whether he was subconsciously trying to make it up to her or whether he just wanted to find the rapist before she did, he didn't know and it didn't matter. All that mattered, at least to him, was the fact they were getting some semblence of friendship back, some trust.

Now, he was in here and she was out in a world that allowed coffee and a world where other men could ask her to go for a coffee before he could. Yeah, so little trust and slight friendship didn't a great relationship make, but it was a start.

Men asking Veronica for coffee instantly brought the Echolls kid to mind.

Logan and Veronica had broken up just before he got put in the land of no salt. A single Veronica Mars meant he could ask her for coffee and God.

All Don Lamb could think about was coffee.

Coffee, coffee, coffee.

Colombian, Costa Rican, Puerto Rican, Dominican...

"A coffee, a coffee, my hospital bed for a coffee..." Don grumbled as he flipped a nurse the bird. Unfortunately, the nurse simply smiled and waved her fingers.

Great, just great.

He couldn't even get an argument in here.

"Did you write that in your letter to Santa?"

Don turned his glare from nurse Perky to the owner of voice Perky and sighed. "Veronica Mars. To what do I owe the honour?"

The girl in question simply smiled as she took a sip from her Starbucks cup. "Took your chocolates, huh?"

"Every. Last. One."

She walked closer to his bed and stood there, staring down at him with pity in her eyes. "Can you remember when I fell that time? When Lily gave me my first pair of rollerblades? Signed to me by Aaron Echolls, no less. Was I eleven or twelve?"

"Eleven years, five months, and three days," he replied, unable to tear his eyes away from the cup of liquid heaven she held. "Your broken rib ended up puncturing a lung," and he laughed.

"Yeah," Veronica agreed with a quirky smile. "Laughable. Remember when I wasn't allowed anything fizzy so you shook all my soda and let the fizz out until they were flat?"

Don laughed again, pushing himself a little more upright in his bed. His expression must have showed some form of desperation because she responded.

"I never thanked you for that, did I? That was very remiss of me, sheriff."

"Sheriff?" He asked as though his mouth wasn't watering at the smell of her drink. "What happened to deputy?"

Her quirky smile turned into an out and out grin. "Deputy is now heartily reserved for my dad."

This time Don didn't laugh, he cackled until his chest hurt. "Oh, I bet that pleases him."

"Endlessly," she said a bit wickedly. "So, here I am and do you see what I hold in my right hand?"

See it? "I can smell it, Mars."

"Aren't you gonna ask how it is? After all, you haven't had a cup of it what has too feel like forever."

"You're evil, you that, right?"

Innocence washed over her face. "It's not my fault the horns make my halo a little crooked," and she took a drink.

A big, long drink of her nice, hot coffee and swallowed it down with an ahhh of appreciation. "Delicious," she stated with a lick of her glossy lips. "I'd ask if you agree, but you know."

He had never contemplated throttling a woman in his life, but there were first times for everything he supposed. "I hate you."

"Course you do. Hey nurse," she yelled while never taking her eyes off him. "Is kissing allowed? Great, thanks. Tell me how much you hate me after this..."

And Don swore he'd never had better coffee in his life.


End file.
